The Latest Scenarios

The rules of this world

How to play?

What is Media Wars?

Media Wars is an Alternate Reality Game.

An Alternate Reality Game (ARG for short) combines the best elements of viral media, role playing games and blending fantasy with reality.

The key feature of an ARG is that it does not present itself as a game per-se: it gives the outward appearance of being a real-life adventurous situation, just something the player has stumbled upon. However, an ARG is distinctly a game. The games consist — for the most part — of tracking down clues scattered across the real and virtual world and assembling them to solve a mystery.

The way Media Wars is played is quite unique and really, first of its kind. Majority of the game takes place on the website, MediaWars.co. The game is centered around social media. Within the site you will find news stories, videos, blog posts, emails and even a Twitter like feature, called Buzzer.

So What Does This Have to Do With The Pretender?

You ask a lot of questions, you know that? Ah well, I don’t mind.

Here’s the thing: Media Wars was not originally designed with The Pretender in mind. But, after Steve and Craig put out the call for fans to join up and play the game and prove an appetite for a Pretender tie-in, things changed a bit. You will begin to get directed into bonus content for us Pretender fans that will involve Jarod, Miss Parker and the whole Centre gang. But we’re finishing up the details. For now, here’s all we ask: DO NOT disrupt the game as it is right now with mentions of anything Pretender related. Do not accuse the Centre or Jarod of being behind anything, do not post links to ThePretenderLives.com.

We are working closely with The Powers That Be at Media Wars to get the Pretender content available as soon as possible. For now, embrace the challenge of going into the game undercover. You’re a Pretender, just like Jarod! Investigate each scenario, comment and interact with other players. And keep The Pretender quiet until we update you with the go-ahead. Trust us, you’re going to love it!

So How Do I Play This Thing?

After signing up to play on MediaWars.co, decide who you want to be in the MediaWars world. This is what many consider to be the most fun aspect of an ARG – you don’t have to be Lara Croft or Master Chief. You can be you, if you want to. Or, just like Jarod, you can be anyone you want to be. Wanna pretend to be a Centre Sweeper from Istanbul? Have at. Wanna be you, cracking mysteries in your pajamas while eating Pez? Go for it. You are whoever you want to be. Decide for yourself what persona you want to play as – good or bad. To get an idea of who you want to be and how you want to play, check out this page from the Media Wars Wiki: http://wiki.mediawars.co/wiki/Play_Styles

A crisis (called a scenario) will emerge in the game over a 21 day period, ultimately leading to two opposing courses of action. Read each day’s news articles, watch any videos, read blog posts. This is how you know what position to argue in the game, because what you must do is click on articles and blog posts and post persuasive comments. You will be rewarded with Impact Points and Money. Impact Points and Money are crucial – they are how you grow your influence in the game. And Media Wars is all about influence.

Upvote those comments that align with your agenda for further rewards, downvote the ones that oppose your view and work to sway opinion. Click on any person’s name to view their Profile and learn how influential they are. If you like what they say (or want to keep your distrustful eye on them,) select to Follow them and receive updates on how they are arguing. Use Messages to speak to allies individually and persuade them to follow you. Use Buzzer to send your message to an even wider audience.

Basically, persuading others with comments, Buzzes, poll votes, Likes, and spreading the word thorough your own Follower network is your main objective. Entertain what’s presented, examine the evidence you’re given, argue your point in each article or blog post and co-ordinate with like-minded people to win over the rest of the players.

Tell Me More About These Impact Points and Money

Impact points are pretty straightforward. These are awarded to you for being active. The more you comment, upvote, downvote and so on, the more impact you have. The more impact you have, the higher up the Leaderboard you get. Your goal should be to at least break into the Top 10 on each scenario’s Leaderboard – and if you play the game just right, you could be number 1!

Here’s a quick breakdown of how the Impact Points and Money are earned:

Create a Comment

5 Impact Points, $5, rewarded up to 20 times a day

Like/Dislike a Comment

1 Impact Point, $1, rewarded up to 100 times a day

Create a Buzz

5 Impact Points, $5, rewarded up to 5 times a day

Follow a Person

1 Impact Point, $1, rewarded up to 5 times a day

Use a Powerup

5 Impact Points, $5, rewarded up to 2 times a day

Cast a Vote in a Poll

25 Impact Points, $25, one vote per poll available

Get a Like/Dislike on YOUR Comment

0 Impact Points, $1, unlimited

Get a Like on YOUR Buzz

2 Impact Points, $2, unlimited

Get a Like on YOUR Ad

5 Impact Points, $5, unlimited

Money is not as obvious, but it is simply the. most. powerful. weapon. you. have. against your opponents and their arguments.

You can win friends and influence people with it. Money can be used to send bribes to players in private messages. The idea is that you send the money with a message asking them to argue in favor of your side of the scenario. You can also try bribing people when votes are taking place, trying to get them to vote your way. But that’s not all Money is good for…

The Takedown

Here’s how money is your weapon: You can use it to mess with players that have opposing views.

When you or an opponent make a comment, you should notice the appearance of an Add-On option. When you click that, you’ll be presented with a menu of things you can do to your – or their – comment. Each one will cost you money to use. But gee whiz, they are worth every bit of your money. What you’ll find is:

SHOUT HARDERThis will turn a post into all capital letters and make your opponent look like a raving goofball.

DEVOWEL

Remove vowels and other letters from your opponent’s post, rendering it difficult to read. This product stacks, meaning that you can use it on the same post over and over and it will continue to remove vowels until there are no more.

EDIT A COMMENT

Make any comment editable for 5 minutes. And by any, I mean your opponent’s comment. Yes, you’re reading that right. You can literally buy the ability to put words in an enemy arguer’s mouth. You use this, you can change their comment into anything you want them to say.

VOTE FUZZING

Make it hard to determine how well liked a comment is for an hour.

DOWNVOTE BOT

Give a comment a number of downvotes. WARNING: Has a small chance of failure.

You can also purchase Add-Ons that help your posts.

VOTE AMPLIFICATION

Make upvotes and downvotes count more for an hour.

UPVOTE BOT

Give a comment a number of upvotes. WARNING: Has a small chance of failure.

COMMENT PROMINENCE

This makes your comment rise to the top of the thread. The higher in the thread you are, the more likely you are to be seen, upvoted and commented on. Which gains you Impact Points and increases your standing on the Leaderboard.

DOWNVOTE IMMUNITY

Makes your comment immune to downvotes for one hour.

What About The Stock Market?

Good question! You can put your money to work and buy stock in companies that are being affected by the scenarios currently in play. You should pay attention to trends that are emerging in all scenarios so that you buy or sell before the hammer falls. The stock market aspects are basically a mini-game in itself and you don’t have to play it.

The Stock Market mini-game is where players can wager on how events are going to affect dozens of stocks. This is a way to engage Media Wars that is an entire game system in its own right. All scenarios apparently have stock triggers throughout that will drive stocks (or entire market sectors) up and down dramatically for many of the companies impacted. Broadly, these are oil companies, media companies, weapon manufacturers, global market sectors (by region), and small stocks. Each appears in a story or is affected because of regional effects, such as oil stocks being hammered by a Mid-East crisis.

And How About Power-Ups?

This is a place where you can burn a lot of your money very quickly. ALL Power-up purchases here are simply done by clicking the dollar amount to be automatically deducted from your currency balance, which is shown under your name at the top of this page. You gain 5 Impact Points and $5 for each Power-up used, up to two times a day, although you can certainly buy more!

The Power-Ups are as follows:

Create An Ad

Like traditional Internet sites, Media Wars has advertising, but these messages are entirely player-created. This is a hugely enjoyable and highly visible way to get your messages across to all players. Simply enter text in the box here and click on the $250 text to purchase and automatically publish your ad for 6 hours. All purchased ads vie for appearance on all other pages, and are randomly selected, so you don’t know where or when they’ll appear.

Liking Ads

Each ad has the Upvote/Downvote thumb icons next to it so players can vote on it as well, just like we’d like to do on actual web sites!

Rewarding Ads

Every Like on your ad will give you 5 Impact Points and $5. There is no daily limit on how many of these you can receive. Dislikes do not affect your score.

Buy Immunity

This is a massively effective powerup that keeps your posts from harmful Add On attacks for the next 24 hours, but costs a ton of money. Likely this Powerup will be used late in scenarios when players need to protect their final arguments.

Get Insider Information

For a lot of money ($10,000!), you can get insider messages on which stocks to buy, but beware! Tips are only 60% accurate! But you can make a lot with the right tip, if you can buy a lot of shares.

Gain Controlling Interest

Gain Controlling Interest ($100,000). This powerup is likely only purchased a few months into Media Wars as players amass money. You will be given login credentials for that company’s personal account as well as other perks.